How to root Marshmallow, Lollipop and older versions of Android: The beginner’s guide to rooting, risks and benefits. How to install the latest version of Android, and how to install custom ROMs including CyanogenMod

Android is a wonderfully open platform, with Marshmallow and Lollipop being excellent examples of how far the OS has developed. There’s even more potential under the hood though, and our guide to rooting your phone or tablet shows you how to get the most from your device.

Android is a wonderfully open platform, with Marshmallow and Lollipop being excellent examples of how far the OS has developed. There’s even more potential under the hood though, and our beginner’s guide to rooting your phone or tablet shows you how to get the most from your Android device.

One of the biggest advantages of the Android platform over its rivals is how users can customise devices to their personal tastes and requirements. The ultimate expression of this is rooting a phone. While Android is customisable, the layers of software that manufacturers often put on top of the OS can be limiting. Rooting is a way to get rid of this barrier, gain access to every aspect of the device, and take total control of your system. In this feature we’ll show you the basic principles of how to root a device running Marshmallow, Lollipop, or an older version of Android, and some of the pitfalls you need to avoid.

This is a beginner’s guide, so you don’t need to be a seasoned technician to achieve a rooted phone. There are some risks involved though, including the potential to make your phone totally unusable, so we recommend you read through the article in full before you consider heading down this path, and if possible practice on an old phone first. That being said, rooting a phone is actually quite straightforward and the benefits easily outweigh the risks for careful users.

Next Pages: How to root Android phone or tablet: What does rooting mean?